Two Russian cosmonauts living on the International Space Station are taking their second spacewalk in less than a week Thursday, and you can watch the action live online.

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin will spend six hours working outside the space station to install move experiments and install new gear. The excursion comes six days after a Aug. 16 spacewalk by the cosmonauts that lasted nearly seven and a half hours and set a new record for the longest Russian spacewalk in history.

You can watch today's spacewalk live here, courtesy of NASA TV. Cameras mounted on the spacesuit helmets of both cosmonauts are capturing amazing views of Earth and space. Read more...

Two Russian cosmonauts living on the International Space Station are taking their second spacewalk in less than a week Thursday, and you can watch the action live online.

Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin will spend six hours working outside the space station to install move experiments and install new gear. The excursion comes six days after a Aug. 16 spacewalk by the cosmonauts that lasted nearly seven and a half hours and set a new record for the longest Russian spacewalk in history.

You can watch today's spacewalk live here, courtesy of NASA TV. Cameras mounted on the spacesuit helmets of both cosmonauts are capturing amazing views of Earth and space. Read more...

If you can't make it to Sweden to see the Northern Lights, the next best thing is a new video of the aurora lights compiled from thousands of hours of observations by videographer Chad Blakley.

Blakley captured the glowing green and purple lights of the aurora borealis between 2012 and 2013 from Abisko National Park, one of the world's best spots for sighting the lights. He then compiled his footage in a new way to avoid the normal pitfalls of time-lapse photography and provide a view closer to what the eye would see in real-time.

"The film uses a new time-lapse technique that allows me to show you the auroras in a way that I never thought possible — virtual real time," Blakley told SPACE.com. Read more...

If you can't make it to Sweden to see the Northern Lights, the next best thing is a new video of the aurora lights compiled from thousands of hours of observations by videographer Chad Blakley.

Blakley captured the glowing green and purple lights of the aurora borealis between 2012 and 2013 from Abisko National Park, one of the world's best spots for sighting the lights. He then compiled his footage in a new way to avoid the normal pitfalls of time-lapse photography and provide a view closer to what the eye would see in real-time.

"The film uses a new time-lapse technique that allows me to show you the auroras in a way that I never thought possible — virtual real time," Blakley told SPACE.com. Read more...

When the full moon rises on Tuesday night, it will technically be a Blue Moon, but not for the reason you might think.

The Blue Moon on Aug. 20 is not the second full moon of August, but actually gets its name from a relatively obscure rule of astronomy. And there are a few other details about the full moon that might surprise you.

So to celebrate the Blue Moon, here are five amazing facts about this month's full moon:

1. It's Not Really Blue

Okay, so not really a newsflash, but the Blue Moon's name actually has nothing to do with color. Occasionally, the full moon can take on a reddish pallor, but today's full moon is not related to the actual color of Earth's cosmic neighbor. The moon can appear blue in color if a forest fire or volcanic eruption litters the upper atmosphere with ash or smoke. A volcanic eruption gave the moon a bluish tint from the perspective of many people on Earth in 1991 Read more...

When the full moon rises on Tuesday night, it will technically be a Blue Moon, but not for the reason you might think.

The Blue Moon on Aug. 20 is not the second full moon of August, but actually gets its name from a relatively obscure rule of astronomy. And there are a few other details about the full moon that might surprise you.

So to celebrate the Blue Moon, here are five amazing facts about this month's full moon:

1. It's Not Really Blue

Okay, so not really a newsflash, but the Blue Moon's name actually has nothing to do with color. Occasionally, the full moon can take on a reddish pallor, but today's full moon is not related to the actual color of Earth's cosmic neighbor. The moon can appear blue in color if a forest fire or volcanic eruption litters the upper atmosphere with ash or smoke. A volcanic eruption gave the moon a bluish tint from the perspective of many people on Earth in 1991 Read more...

The revolutionary planet-hunting activities of NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope have come to an end.

NASA has given up hope of restoring the Kepler spacecraft to full health and is now attempting to determine what the observatory can accomplish in its compromised state, agency officials announced today.

"We are now moving on to the next phase of Kepler's mission because that's what the data requires us to do," Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, told reporters during a press conference today. "This is not the last you'll hear from Kepler. There's a huge amount of data collected that we'll continue to analyze." Read more...

The revolutionary planet-hunting activities of NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope have come to an end.

NASA has given up hope of restoring the Kepler spacecraft to full health and is now attempting to determine what the observatory can accomplish in its compromised state, agency officials announced today.

"We are now moving on to the next phase of Kepler's mission because that's what the data requires us to do," Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, told reporters during a press conference today. "This is not the last you'll hear from Kepler. There's a huge amount of data collected that we'll continue to analyze." Read more...

An experimental reusable rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX has soared though a series of ever-higher test flights over its Texas launch site, but it may have just taken its most awesome leap yet: a sideways rocket hop.

The new video shows SpaceX's Grasshopper launching to an altitude of 820 feet. The rocket then went into a hover mode, moved 328 feet sideways, and then returned back to the center of its launch pad. From launch to landing, the flight lasted just over one minute. Read more...

An experimental reusable rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX has soared though a series of ever-higher test flights over its Texas launch site, but it may have just taken its most awesome leap yet: a sideways rocket hop.

The new video shows SpaceX's Grasshopper launching to an altitude of 820 feet. The rocket then went into a hover mode, moved 328 feet sideways, and then returned back to the center of its launch pad. From launch to landing, the flight lasted just over one minute. Read more...

Six scientists emerged from a space habitat on Hawaii's Big Island Tuesday, ending a four-month simulated mission designed to study how best to feed astronauts during the long trip to Mars.

The mission, known as Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation (or HI-SEAS for short), began in mid-April and wrapped up Tuesday morning, when the six explorers stepped onto a lava field about 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) above sea level on the northern slope of Mauna Loa.

Six scientists emerged from a space habitat on Hawaii's Big Island Tuesday, ending a four-month simulated mission designed to study how best to feed astronauts during the long trip to Mars.

The mission, known as Hawaii Space Exploration Analog & Simulation (or HI-SEAS for short), began in mid-April and wrapped up Tuesday morning, when the six explorers stepped onto a lava field about 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) above sea level on the northern slope of Mauna Loa.

From Babylon 5 to Elysium, some of the best science fiction on the big screen has involved a space station.

The pop culture space stations may play integral roles in their plotlines while others merely appear and disappear as needed. But no matter how big or small of a role they play, all of the stations elevate their particular works of fiction to new heights.

For our purposes, space stations are any large structure that can support a colony in orbit around a planetary body or are large enough to stand on their own in deep space. Despite the fact that some ships in science fiction act as stations, they were not included in this list. Read more...

From Babylon 5 to Elysium, some of the best science fiction on the big screen has involved a space station.

The pop culture space stations may play integral roles in their plotlines while others merely appear and disappear as needed. But no matter how big or small of a role they play, all of the stations elevate their particular works of fiction to new heights.

For our purposes, space stations are any large structure that can support a colony in orbit around a planetary body or are large enough to stand on their own in deep space. Despite the fact that some ships in science fiction act as stations, they were not included in this list. Read more...

In the new movie Elysium, Earth is beyond repair, and the rich and powerful have decided to leave it behind.

Instead of three to six highly trained astronauts circling the Earth in an orbiting laboratory as there are today, the Elysium space station serves as an oasis for those that can afford it. In the film, humanity has developed a large, rotating space station above a dystopic Earth by the year 2154. The station comes stocked with mansions, grass, trees, water and gravity.

Although that kind of brave new world might sound far-fetched, the space station's design — and the science behind it — isn't. Read more...

In the new movie Elysium, Earth is beyond repair, and the rich and powerful have decided to leave it behind.

Instead of three to six highly trained astronauts circling the Earth in an orbiting laboratory as there are today, the Elysium space station serves as an oasis for those that can afford it. In the film, humanity has developed a large, rotating space station above a dystopic Earth by the year 2154. The station comes stocked with mansions, grass, trees, water and gravity.

Although that kind of brave new world might sound far-fetched, the space station's design — and the science behind it — isn't. Read more...

NASA is asking scientists for ideas about new ways to use its Kepler space telescope, whose planet-hunting mission was stalled by a malfunction three months ago.

The space agency issued a call for new mission proposals on Friday, Aug. 2 to help prepare for the likelihood that Kepler will never fully regain its health, which was compromised in mid-May when the second of Kepler's four orientation-maintaining reaction wheels failed. This robbed the instrument of its precision-pointing ability.

"If one of the two reaction wheels cannot be returned to operation, it is unlikely that the spacecraft will resume the nominal Kepler exoplanet and astrophysics mission," Kepler officials wrote in the request for ideas. "The purpose of this call for white papers is to solicit community input for alternate science investigations that may be performed using Kepler, and are consistent with its probable two-wheel performance." Read more...

NASA is asking scientists for ideas about new ways to use its Kepler space telescope, whose planet-hunting mission was stalled by a malfunction three months ago.

The space agency issued a call for new mission proposals on Friday, Aug. 2 to help prepare for the likelihood that Kepler will never fully regain its health, which was compromised in mid-May when the second of Kepler's four orientation-maintaining reaction wheels failed. This robbed the instrument of its precision-pointing ability.

"If one of the two reaction wheels cannot be returned to operation, it is unlikely that the spacecraft will resume the nominal Kepler exoplanet and astrophysics mission," Kepler officials wrote in the request for ideas. "The purpose of this call for white papers is to solicit community input for alternate science investigations that may be performed using Kepler, and are consistent with its probable two-wheel performance." Read more...

A new portrait of the Milky Way's neighbor, Andromeda, shows our twin galaxy as we've never seen it before — thanks to a new instrument on Japan's Subaru telescope at the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea.

The instrument, called the Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC), provides sharp images of the cosmos across a wide field of view. The new photo demonstrates that the HSC camera makes good on its promise of offering his-resolution views of objects throughout the telescope's large 1.5-degree field of view.

"This first image from HSC is truly exciting," Masahiro Takada, chair of the HSC science working group at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan, said in a statement. "We can now start the long-awaited, largest-ever galaxy survey for understanding the evolutionary history and fate of the expanding universe." Read more...

A new portrait of the Milky Way's neighbor, Andromeda, shows our twin galaxy as we've never seen it before — thanks to a new instrument on Japan's Subaru telescope at the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea.

The instrument, called the Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC), provides sharp images of the cosmos across a wide field of view. The new photo demonstrates that the HSC camera makes good on its promise of offering his-resolution views of objects throughout the telescope's large 1.5-degree field of view.

"This first image from HSC is truly exciting," Masahiro Takada, chair of the HSC science working group at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan, said in a statement. "We can now start the long-awaited, largest-ever galaxy survey for understanding the evolutionary history and fate of the expanding universe." Read more...

Canada has developed a new version of its famed robotic space arm to give exploration of the final frontier a helping hand.

The nation's Next-Generation Canadarm (NGC) program is designed to support both missions in low-Earth orbit and deep space, ranging from repairing communication satellites to assisting manned missions to the moon, asteroids, Mars and other corners of the universe, officials said.

"With the retirement of the space shuttle, a new generation of crewed space exploration vehicles will soon become available," said Alain Ouellet, director of space exploration development at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Read more...

Canada has developed a new version of its famed robotic space arm to give exploration of the final frontier a helping hand.

The nation's Next-Generation Canadarm (NGC) program is designed to support both missions in low-Earth orbit and deep space, ranging from repairing communication satellites to assisting manned missions to the moon, asteroids, Mars and other corners of the universe, officials said.

"With the retirement of the space shuttle, a new generation of crewed space exploration vehicles will soon become available," said Alain Ouellet, director of space exploration development at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Read more...

Yesterday, an unmanned Russian cargo ship filled with trash and an astronaut treadmill cast off from the International Space Station to make way for a fresh delivery, set to launch to the orbiting lab this weekend.

The robotic Progress 50 spacecraft undocked from the space station at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT) to end its months-long resupply mission. The spacecraft was expected to begin a fiery plunge back to Earth at 7:53 p.m. EDT (2353 GMT) and ultimately burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, NASA officials said.

According to a NASA spokesman, among the trash and unneeded gear on the Progress 50 spacecraft was the Treadmill Vibration Isolation System — the space treadmill astronauts used to keep fit during the months of weightlessness living on the station. The treadmill had been used on the station since the first crew took up residence in November 2000. Read more...

Yesterday, an unmanned Russian cargo ship filled with trash and an astronaut treadmill cast off from the International Space Station to make way for a fresh delivery, set to launch to the orbiting lab this weekend.

The robotic Progress 50 spacecraft undocked from the space station at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT) to end its months-long resupply mission. The spacecraft was expected to begin a fiery plunge back to Earth at 7:53 p.m. EDT (2353 GMT) and ultimately burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, NASA officials said.

According to a NASA spokesman, among the trash and unneeded gear on the Progress 50 spacecraft was the Treadmill Vibration Isolation System — the space treadmill astronauts used to keep fit during the months of weightlessness living on the station. The treadmill had been used on the station since the first crew took up residence in November 2000. Read more...

A spectacular new photo gives a deep-space view of Comet ISON, which could put on a dazzling show when it zooms through the inner solar system this November.

The image — which researchers stitched together from five photos of ISON taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 30 — shows the icy wanderer blazing against a backdrop of galaxies and bright stars.

"The result is part science, part art," Josh Sokol of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., which operates Hubble, wrote in a blog post last week. "It's a simulation of what our eyes, with their ability to dynamically adjust to brighter and fainter objects, would see if we could look up at the heavens with the resolution of Hubble." Read more...

A spectacular new photo gives a deep-space view of Comet ISON, which could put on a dazzling show when it zooms through the inner solar system this November.

The image — which researchers stitched together from five photos of ISON taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on April 30 — shows the icy wanderer blazing against a backdrop of galaxies and bright stars.

"The result is part science, part art," Josh Sokol of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., which operates Hubble, wrote in a blog post last week. "It's a simulation of what our eyes, with their ability to dynamically adjust to brighter and fainter objects, would see if we could look up at the heavens with the resolution of Hubble." Read more...

Last week, NASA released a draft solicitation for the fourth and final development phase of its Commercial Crew Program — an initiative that has plans for a crewed space launch to the International Space Station from U.S. soil by late 2017.

The Commercial Crew Program is a NASA effort that subsidizes commercial development of systems to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. According to the draft solicitation, there would be two such flights per year, once NASA places its first task order for a crewed flight.

Before NASA releases the final solicitation this fall, the agency will host a pre-solicitation conference with industry at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 1 and 2, according to the draft. As expected, the contract will be a fixed-priced deal administered under the Federal Acquisition Regulations. So far, NASA has mostly relied on funded Space Act Agreements to subsidize development of commercially designed spacecraft. Read more...

Last week, NASA released a draft solicitation for the fourth and final development phase of its Commercial Crew Program — an initiative that has plans for a crewed space launch to the International Space Station from U.S. soil by late 2017.

The Commercial Crew Program is a NASA effort that subsidizes commercial development of systems to ferry astronauts to and from the space station. According to the draft solicitation, there would be two such flights per year, once NASA places its first task order for a crewed flight.

Before NASA releases the final solicitation this fall, the agency will host a pre-solicitation conference with industry at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 1 and 2, according to the draft. As expected, the contract will be a fixed-priced deal administered under the Federal Acquisition Regulations. So far, NASA has mostly relied on funded Space Act Agreements to subsidize development of commercially designed spacecraft. Read more...

NASA has created an expert panel to investigate what went wrong during a July 16 spacewalk that had to be cut short when water began filling the spacesuit helmet of one astronaut in a scary malfunction.

A NASA engineering team is already studying European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano's spacesuit and life-support equipment, looking for the cause of the unprecedented leak that could potentially have drowned the astronaut if not caught in time. The newly created board will take a complementary tack when its work begins on Aug. 2. Meanwhile, NASA is scrambling to load a spacesuit repair kit onto a Russian cargo ship launching to the space station on Saturday (July 27), agency officials said. Read more...

NASA has created an expert panel to investigate what went wrong during a July 16 spacewalk that had to be cut short when water began filling the spacesuit helmet of one astronaut in a scary malfunction.

A NASA engineering team is already studying European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano's spacesuit and life-support equipment, looking for the cause of the unprecedented leak that could potentially have drowned the astronaut if not caught in time. The newly created board will take a complementary tack when its work begins on Aug. 2. Meanwhile, NASA is scrambling to load a spacesuit repair kit onto a Russian cargo ship launching to the space station on Saturday (July 27), agency officials said. Read more...

Boeing has thrown open the hatch to its new commercial spacecraft, offering a first look inside the capsule it is building in a bid to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

At its Houston Product Support Center — located near NASA's Johnson Space Center — Boeing revealed its first full-scale model of the CST-100, a gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that can seat up to seven crew members.

Today, two NASA astronauts were strapped into the capsule mockup to undergo flight suit evaluations aimed at validating the CST-100's interior design.

Boeing has thrown open the hatch to its new commercial spacecraft, offering a first look inside the capsule it is building in a bid to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

At its Houston Product Support Center — located near NASA's Johnson Space Center — Boeing revealed its first full-scale model of the CST-100, a gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that can seat up to seven crew members.

Today, two NASA astronauts were strapped into the capsule mockup to undergo flight suit evaluations aimed at validating the CST-100's interior design.

NASA has granted funding to a dozen imaginative tech concepts, in the hopes that one or more of them will lead to big breakthroughs in space science and exploration.

The 12 ideas, which were selected under Phase 1 of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, are ambitious and varied. One aims to build biomaterials such as human tissue with a 3D printer, for example, while another proposes to induce deep-sleep torpor states in astronauts making the long journey to Mars.

"These new Phase 1 selections include potential breakthroughs for Earth and space science, diverse operations and the potential for new paths that expand human civilization and commerce into space," NIAC program executive Jay Falker said in a statement Read more...

NASA has granted funding to a dozen imaginative tech concepts, in the hopes that one or more of them will lead to big breakthroughs in space science and exploration.

The 12 ideas, which were selected under Phase 1 of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, are ambitious and varied. One aims to build biomaterials such as human tissue with a 3D printer, for example, while another proposes to induce deep-sleep torpor states in astronauts making the long journey to Mars.

"These new Phase 1 selections include potential breakthroughs for Earth and space science, diverse operations and the potential for new paths that expand human civilization and commerce into space," NIAC program executive Jay Falker said in a statement Read more...

A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget. Read more...

A NASA authorization bill drafted by the Republican majority of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology proposes to slash NASA's funding to $16.6 billion for 2014 — $300 million less than it received in 2013, and $1.1 billion less than President Obama requested for NASA in 2014. The bill — which authorizes spending levels but provides no actual funding — would roll back NASA’s funding to a level $1.2 billion less than its 2012 budget. Read more...

University students in Japan are building a slime mold-housing micro-satellite that will orbit the Earth and send back photos of the microorganisms' growth. The small satellite will transmit the pictures to Earth using amateur radio.

The Microbial Observation Satellite, TeikyoSat-3, is a project of Teikyo University and is a small satellite project of the Space System Society at the university's Utsunomiya campus

TeikyoSat-3 weighs 44 pounds (20 kilograms) and is designed to study the impact of space radiation and the microgravity environment on a mold called Dictyostelium discoideum. This species of soil-living amoeba belongs to the phylum Mycetozoa and is often given the less-than-highbrow biological label of "slime mold." Read more...

University students in Japan are building a slime mold-housing micro-satellite that will orbit the Earth and send back photos of the microorganisms' growth. The small satellite will transmit the pictures to Earth using amateur radio.

The Microbial Observation Satellite, TeikyoSat-3, is a project of Teikyo University and is a small satellite project of the Space System Society at the university's Utsunomiya campus

TeikyoSat-3 weighs 44 pounds (20 kilograms) and is designed to study the impact of space radiation and the microgravity environment on a mold called Dictyostelium discoideum. This species of soil-living amoeba belongs to the phylum Mycetozoa and is often given the less-than-highbrow biological label of "slime mold." Read more...

More about Space, Japan, Science, Satellite, and Tech]]>Mars Lost Most of Its Atmosphere Billions of Years AgoSpace.comhttp://mashable.com/?p=2040369Fri, 19 Jul 2013 00:00:12 +0000
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SpaceNasaAtmosphereMarsUs World

Mars is not a nice place to live: The Red Planet is cold and dry, and its thin atmosphere is dominated by carbon dioxide.

And, according to new data collected by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity and studies of ancient Martian meteorites, the planet's atmosphere hasn't changed very much in about 4 billion years.

Scientists suspect that, after Mars' violent formation about 4.5 billion years ago, something caused the planet to lose its atmosphere, which is now only about 1% as thick as that of Earth

"A lot of the atmosphere of Mars might have been lost pretty rapidly," said Paul Mahaffy, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of one of two new studies of the Red Planet's atmosphere published online today in the journal Science. Read more...

"A lot of the atmosphere of Mars might have been lost pretty rapidly," said Paul Mahaffy, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of one of two new studies of the Red Planet's atmosphere published online today in the journal Science. Read more...

More about Space, Nasa, Atmosphere, Mars, and Us World]]>How to See a Black HoleSpace.comhttp://mashable.com/?p=2033065Wed, 17 Jul 2013 04:00:56 +0000
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SpaceShadowsImagingTechUs

Black holes are essentially invisible, but astronomers are developing technology to image the immediate surroundings of these enigmas like never before. Within a few years, experts say, scientists may have the first-ever picture of the environment around a black hole, and could even spot the theorized "shadow" of a black hole itself.

Black holes are hard to see in detail because the large ones are all far away. The closest supermassive black hole is the one thought to inhabit the center of the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-star"), which lies about 26,000 light-years away. This is the first target for an ambitious international project to image a black hole in greater detail than ever before, called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Read more...

Black holes are essentially invisible, but astronomers are developing technology to image the immediate surroundings of these enigmas like never before. Within a few years, experts say, scientists may have the first-ever picture of the environment around a black hole, and could even spot the theorized "shadow" of a black hole itself.

Black holes are hard to see in detail because the large ones are all far away. The closest supermassive black hole is the one thought to inhabit the center of the Milky Way, called Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-star"), which lies about 26,000 light-years away. This is the first target for an ambitious international project to image a black hole in greater detail than ever before, called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Read more...

NASA aborted a planned six-hour spacewalk by two astronauts outside the International Space Station Tuesday when a one of the spacewalkers reported "a lot of water" inside his spacesuit helmet, a potentially scary situation.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano reported that helmet started filling with water, making it difficult for him to continue the spacewalk outside of the International Space Station. The spacewalk ended after one hour and 32 minutes. It was supposed to last six hours and 15 minutes.

"There is some in my eyes, and some in my nose," Parmitano said. "It's a lot of water." Read more...

NASA aborted a planned six-hour spacewalk by two astronauts outside the International Space Station Tuesday when a one of the spacewalkers reported "a lot of water" inside his spacesuit helmet, a potentially scary situation.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano reported that helmet started filling with water, making it difficult for him to continue the spacewalk outside of the International Space Station. The spacewalk ended after one hour and 32 minutes. It was supposed to last six hours and 15 minutes.

"There is some in my eyes, and some in my nose," Parmitano said. "It's a lot of water." Read more...

One of the brightest stellar explosions of the 20th century may have inspired Superman's origin story, one scholar says.

Nova Herculis — the cataclysmic explosion in the constellation Hercules that captivated the public for several years during the mid-1930s — could have given rise to the superhero's now-famous birth on Krypton.

"I think that Nova Herculis may have played a role in turning Superman from a time travel story into an astronomical one," Brad Ricca, an English professor at Case Western Reserve University, said in a presentation on Wednesday, July 10 during the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena Conference held at the American Museum of Natural History. "Krypton is a planet, not a star — so it's not exploding — but the way it is presented echoes the popular articles about the nova," Ricca explained Read more...

One of the brightest stellar explosions of the 20th century may have inspired Superman's origin story, one scholar says.

Nova Herculis — the cataclysmic explosion in the constellation Hercules that captivated the public for several years during the mid-1930s — could have given rise to the superhero's now-famous birth on Krypton.

"I think that Nova Herculis may have played a role in turning Superman from a time travel story into an astronomical one," Brad Ricca, an English professor at Case Western Reserve University, said in a presentation on Wednesday, July 10 during the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena Conference held at the American Museum of Natural History. "Krypton is a planet, not a star — so it's not exploding — but the way it is presented echoes the popular articles about the nova," Ricca explained Read more...

Physics cannot describe what happens inside a black hole. There, current theories break down, and general relativity collides with quantum mechanics, creating what's called a singularity, or a point at whichthe equations spit out infinities.

But some advanced physics theories are trying to bridge the gap between general relativity and quantum mechanics, tounderstand what's truly going on inside the densest objects in the universe. Recently, scientists applied a theory called loop quantum gravity to the case of black holes, and found that inside these objects, space and time may be extremely curved, but that gravity there is not infinite, as general relativity predicts. Read more...

Physics cannot describe what happens inside a black hole. There, current theories break down, and general relativity collides with quantum mechanics, creating what's called a singularity, or a point at whichthe equations spit out infinities.

But some advanced physics theories are trying to bridge the gap between general relativity and quantum mechanics, tounderstand what's truly going on inside the densest objects in the universe. Recently, scientists applied a theory called loop quantum gravity to the case of black holes, and found that inside these objects, space and time may be extremely curved, but that gravity there is not infinite, as general relativity predicts. Read more...

More about Space, Science, Us World, World, and Black Hole]]>Australian Outback Is Much Like MarsSpace.comhttp://mashable.com/?p=2021587Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:28:26 +0000
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SpaceAustraliaMarsUs WorldWorld

The red dirt in central Australia might be a close mimic for the red surface of Mars, suggests research that sheds light on how opals formed in the land Down Under.

Precious opal is Australia’s national gemstone. Both precious opal and common opal are made of amorphous spheres of silica 150 to 400 nanometers or billionths of a meter wide, but in precious opal, these spheres are arranged in highly orderly arrays, resulting in scintillating colors.

The main source of the world's gem-quality opal is the red dirt of the Great Artesian Basin in central Australia, one of the largest continental basins on Earth. Precious opals have been mined there for more than a century, where they occur just within 165 feet (50 meters) of the surface. Read more...

The red dirt in central Australia might be a close mimic for the red surface of Mars, suggests research that sheds light on how opals formed in the land Down Under.

Precious opal is Australia’s national gemstone. Both precious opal and common opal are made of amorphous spheres of silica 150 to 400 nanometers or billionths of a meter wide, but in precious opal, these spheres are arranged in highly orderly arrays, resulting in scintillating colors.

The main source of the world's gem-quality opal is the red dirt of the Great Artesian Basin in central Australia, one of the largest continental basins on Earth. Precious opals have been mined there for more than a century, where they occur just within 165 feet (50 meters) of the surface. Read more...

Astronomers have gotten the first-ever peek at our solar system's tail, called the heliotail, finding that it's shaped like a four-leaf clover, NASA scientists announced Wednesday.

The discovery was made using NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), a coffee-table-sized spacecraft that is studying the edge of the solar system.

"Many models have suggested the heliotail might look like this or like that, but we have had no observations," David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Tex., said in a statement. "We always drew pictures where the tail of the solar system just trailed off the page, since we couldn't even speculate about what it really looked like." Read more...

Astronomers have gotten the first-ever peek at our solar system's tail, called the heliotail, finding that it's shaped like a four-leaf clover, NASA scientists announced Wednesday.

The discovery was made using NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), a coffee-table-sized spacecraft that is studying the edge of the solar system.

"Many models have suggested the heliotail might look like this or like that, but we have had no observations," David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Tex., said in a statement. "We always drew pictures where the tail of the solar system just trailed off the page, since we couldn't even speculate about what it really looked like." Read more...

More about Space, Nasa, Science, Us World, and Us]]>Bacteria in Space Grows in Strange WaysSpace.comhttp://mashable.com/?p=2013149Wed, 10 Jul 2013 15:20:13 +0000
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GrowthSpaceNasaScienceUs World

When bacteria grows in a dish of fake urine in space, it behaves in ways never-before-seen in Earth microorganisms, scientists say.

A team of scientists sent samples of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa into orbit aboard NASA's space shuttle Atlantis to see how they grew in comparison to their Earth-dwelling counterparts.

The 3D communities of microorganisms (called biofilms) grown aboard the space shuttle had more live cells, were thicker and had more biomass than the bacterial colonies grown in normal gravity on Earth as controls. The space bacteria also grew in a "column-and-canopy" structure that has never been observed in bacterial colonies on Earth, according to NASA scientists Read more...

When bacteria grows in a dish of fake urine in space, it behaves in ways never-before-seen in Earth microorganisms, scientists say.

A team of scientists sent samples of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa into orbit aboard NASA's space shuttle Atlantis to see how they grew in comparison to their Earth-dwelling counterparts.

The 3D communities of microorganisms (called biofilms) grown aboard the space shuttle had more live cells, were thicker and had more biomass than the bacterial colonies grown in normal gravity on Earth as controls. The space bacteria also grew in a "column-and-canopy" structure that has never been observed in bacterial colonies on Earth, according to NASA scientists Read more...

Two astronauts will work outside the International Space Station for six-and-a-half hours on Tuesday, and you can follow all the free-floating action live.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano exited the orbiting lab's Quest airlock this morning at 8:10 a.m. EDT. You can watch their spacewalk live on SPACE.com beginning at 7 a.m. EDT, courtesy of NASA TV's feed.

Tuesday's spacewalk is the first of two that Expedition 36 crew members Cassidy and Parmitano will make together this month, with the second taking place on July 16. Both excursions will help prepare the $100 billion orbiting laboratory for a new Russian module and address a variety of maintenance and repair needs, officials said. Read more...

Two astronauts will work outside the International Space Station for six-and-a-half hours on Tuesday, and you can follow all the free-floating action live.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and the European Space Agency's Luca Parmitano exited the orbiting lab's Quest airlock this morning at 8:10 a.m. EDT. You can watch their spacewalk live on SPACE.com beginning at 7 a.m. EDT, courtesy of NASA TV's feed.

Tuesday's spacewalk is the first of two that Expedition 36 crew members Cassidy and Parmitano will make together this month, with the second taking place on July 16. Both excursions will help prepare the $100 billion orbiting laboratory for a new Russian module and address a variety of maintenance and repair needs, officials said. Read more...

Researchers plan to launch a tiny spacecraft to orbit Earth and beyond sometime in the next 18 months. The launch will serve as a key test of new propulsion technology that could help cut the cost of planetary exploration by a factor of 1,000.

The scientists and engineers are developing a new plasma propulsion system designed for ultrasmall CubeSats. If all goes well, they say, it may be possible to launch a life-detection mission to Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon, Europa, or other intriguing worlds for as little as $1 million in the not-too-distant future.

"We want to enable new missions that right now cost about $1 billion, or maybe $500 million — to go, for example, explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn," said project leader Ben Longmier, a plasma physicist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Read more...

Researchers plan to launch a tiny spacecraft to orbit Earth and beyond sometime in the next 18 months. The launch will serve as a key test of new propulsion technology that could help cut the cost of planetary exploration by a factor of 1,000.

The scientists and engineers are developing a new plasma propulsion system designed for ultrasmall CubeSats. If all goes well, they say, it may be possible to launch a life-detection mission to Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon, Europa, or other intriguing worlds for as little as $1 million in the not-too-distant future.

"We want to enable new missions that right now cost about $1 billion, or maybe $500 million — to go, for example, explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn," said project leader Ben Longmier, a plasma physicist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Read more...

This weekend, during the late evening hours, search for the famous "Summer Triangle" high in the eastern sky.

The triangle consists of three of the brightest stars in the sky, each the brightest in its own constellation. Bluish-white star Vega in Lyra (the lyre) is the brightest in the triangle, with yellow-white Altair in Aquila (the eagle) and white Deneb in Cygnus (the swan), following it as second- and third-brightest in the configuration.

From our viewpoint, Vega appears twice as bright as Altair and more than three times brighter than Deneb. But sometimes things are not always what they seem. We know that Vega clearly is more luminous compared to Altair, because it’s situated at a greater distance from us. Altair is 17 light years away, while Vega is just a little farther out at 25 light years away. Read more...

This weekend, during the late evening hours, search for the famous "Summer Triangle" high in the eastern sky.

The triangle consists of three of the brightest stars in the sky, each the brightest in its own constellation. Bluish-white star Vega in Lyra (the lyre) is the brightest in the triangle, with yellow-white Altair in Aquila (the eagle) and white Deneb in Cygnus (the swan), following it as second- and third-brightest in the configuration.

From our viewpoint, Vega appears twice as bright as Altair and more than three times brighter than Deneb. But sometimes things are not always what they seem. We know that Vega clearly is more luminous compared to Altair, because it’s situated at a greater distance from us. Altair is 17 light years away, while Vega is just a little farther out at 25 light years away. Read more...